3.9 Demonstratives
Demonstratives point to the relative importance and nearness or distance from the speaker. English examples of demonstratives are “this, that, these” and “those.”
In Norwegian, the choice of the correct demonstrative depends on the gender (en, ei, or et) of the noun, whether the noun is singular or plural, and finally whether the noun is near or far. The following chart summarizes the forms for demonstratives.
Gender / Number |
Near |
Far |
| Masculine / Feminine | denne bilen (this car) denne jenta (this girl) |
den bilen (that car) den jenta (that girl) |
| Neuter | dette huset (this house) | det huset (that house) |
| Plural | disse bilene (these cars) | de bilene (those cars) |
| disse jentene (these girls) | de jentene (those girls) | |
| disse husene (these houses) | de houses (those houses) |
The noun that follows the demonstrative is generally in the definite (bestemt) form. Here are examples of demonstratives:
| denne stolen (this chair) |
den stolen (that chair) |
disse stolene (these chairs) |
de stolene (those chairs) |
| dette bildet (this picture) |
det bildet (that picture) |
disse bildene (these pictures) |
de bildene (those pictures) |
Tom vil lese denne boka, men han har allerede lest den boka. (Tom wants to read this book, but he has already read that book.)
I dette tilfellet kan vi ikke dra til Trondheim. (In this case, we can’t go to Trondheim.)
Ja, vi elsker dette landet… (Yes, we love this country… Norway’s national anthem)
Ulykken skjedde onsdag i denne uken. (The accident happened Wednesday this week.)
In more informal and colloquial use (similar to English), one can use the additional words “her” or “der” to emphasize the relative nearness or distance from the speaker:
Jeg liker den bilen der. (I like that (there) car.)
Han solgte meg dette kjøleskapet her ifjor. (He sold me this (here) refrigerator last year.)